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Written by Cley Williams

The kind of YouTube marketing campaign your brand chooses to launch will be shaped by the culture of the brand, the goals and objectives of the campaign, and your target market. For companies that never run a marketing campaign on the video platform, YouTube marketing can help you optimize their brand awareness and reach which in turn means more sales conversions.

But apart from the obvious pre-roll ads we all know YouTube for, what other kind of campaigns can your brand run?

Marketing Product Placements on YouTube. Among the most frequent and efficient kinds of video marketing campaigns is incorporating a product, service, or even a logo into a video posted on YouTube that is often not directly related to your brand. By featuring a product or service of the brand on YouTube, or showing the brand’s logo as a podcast sponsor, a company can easily grab the attention of thousands or even millions of YouTube viewers and podcast listeners.

YouTube Unboxing Videos. Unboxing videos are where a YouTube user will unpack a new product and explore the features of a product or even give viewers a quick tutorial on assembling or using the new item. Unboxing-style videos on YouTube are unbelievably popular and have become a preferred marketing strategy for many brands. These have some of the highest ROI of YouTube video marketing.Brands will often send a select package of their products to a YouTube influencer who then chooses how and when to unbox.

YouTube Tutorials, Demonstrations, Guides, and How-To’s. Working with a prominent YouTube celebrity or even a micro influencer, to create a very instructional, demonstration, how-to guide, or tutorial is among the top ways for brands to get in touch with millions of engaged viewers while at the same time providing value to his or her subscribers and even global audiences.

Vlog-Style Marketing Campaigns. For top personalities on YouTube, one of the most engaging and shareable ways of sharing is when they document an experience or create a video blog talking with subscribers. For brands, tapping the attentive followers of a YouTube personality, using vlogs can help them get exposed to thousands, if not millions, of online followers.Behind your brand and marketing campaign will be the personality of the Youtuber you choose to partner with.

Creative Video Marketing Campaigns. Engaging marketing campaigns usually involve integrating creative video idea about a product or service. Creative campaigns often show a different take compared with other types of video marketing campaigns. They are most likely to garner good engagement levels on the part of the consumers (such as likes or even social shares) and have a better chance at going viral on YouTube.

Tapping YouTube Influencers

Based on the tips above, brands have a good reason to tap into the fanbase of an influencer on YouTube to help spread the word about their product or service.

But finding the right influencer for your campaign can be a difficult path. Here are some tips your brand can use.

Filter Through Channels Immediately. You can look for YouTube influencers based on their views per video as well as engagement in terms of the number of comments, likes, or shares per video. You can also look at influencers based on the countries they are in and where their majority audience is based as well as the language they speak.

You can also look for influencers who talk about topics that may be relevant to the product or service you are selling. Their age and the tone of their videos should also match up with your brand story.

Look at Real-Time Analytics. You can tap influencers but see their real-time metrics first. Check if the influencer is the right fit for your video marketing campaign. For example, how consistent are the video views of the influencer? A product or service can look at the last 20 or 30 videos of a YouTube creator, and see the average views of his or her videos.

You can also look at the sponsorship density of the influencer’s account. How many of his videos are sponsored? You don’t want to partner with an influencer who may dilute your brand because they share all sorts of diverse brand stories. Seeing the number of sponsored videos will give products and services an idea on whether or not the influencer is a good candidate for your campaign.

Select the Right Influencers. You can select the right YouTube influencers for your product or service. Studying the right influencers on YouTube can be extremely time consuming and may only provide limited insight for your product or service. This means, content creators and marketers should look for important data such as demographics, popularity, or influence of the YouTube personality.

One of the huge mistakes marketers commit in influencer marketing, is underestimating the pull that top YouTube stars have with their audience and consequently the amount of money you would be required to pay them. It is crucial to know that YouTube influencers who have millions of fans can often cost as much as traditional media celebrities.

The influence of YouTube celebrities is just as engaging these days, if not more relevant than traditional advertising methods, because Youtube content creators can engage and directly speak with their viewers. However, for brands and campaigns that are smaller, the huge costs of YouTube stars make collaborations quite an impossibility. These companies should focus on fostering relationships with micro YouTubers as a means of building brand awareness through the video platform.

Micro-influencers often have a high value and return on investment than expected because they have small but very dedicated fanbases. Partnering with a highly relevant micro-influencer on YouTube is a good way to have a good break into the video influencer marketing landscape. At the same time, tapping a YouTube influencer who is an expert in a niche means not spending the large financial investment that is often budgeted to work with the more high-profile, established influencers.

So What is Next for Businesses?

After you have selected the best YouTube influencers for your video marketing campaign, the product or service will need to begin the influencer outreach process and negotiate a mutually beneficial brand deal.

Following these considerations should help products and services with selecting the right YouTube influencers and marketing to promote organic conversations that will result in shortened and better sales cycles as well as lower acquisition costs.

About the Author

Cley Williams is a marketing consultant, specialising in influencer outreach and marketing. The backbone of what he does is creating a lasting connection and relationship between a brand and its influencer and by extension bringing in loyal return customers. When not dreaming about content, Cley is scaling sheer rock faces.